Pages of Interest

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Interview with Olivia Hardin

Can you
give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?

Shifty
Business is the third book in my Bend-Bite-Shift Trilogy.We briefly met Gerry and Nicky during
book one of the series.In Shifty we get to find out what was
happening to the pair while we were following the other characters at the start
of the trilogy.It turns out Gerry
and Nicky are married, but that is just the beginning of the secrets that get
revealed during the book.

Do you
have a favorite character?

My absolute favorite is Langston.The giant is the dependable, wise and solid cornerstone of
their team.He even helps me when
I’m writing because just putting him in a scene gives me clarity and helps me
get my writing on track.

What is
your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?

I try to get a bit of writing in each evening as the story
is coming along.When it gets
close to the end, I usually buckle in and give myself longer periods to
focus.I do like to listen to
music while writing, but almost entirely instrumentals.I don’t like the lyrics from songs to
interrupt the words in my head.I
do use music to help me plan out scenes, usually when I’m on my thirty minute
drive to and from work.I “see” what’s
going to happen and replay it over and over to its own soundtrack before I
write it later.

Do you
outline your story or just go where your muse takes you?

I’ve tried to outline but it just doesn’t seem to work for
me… I feel stifled by it.Instead
I tend to follow the characters on their journey.I sometimes don’t have any idea how a book might end and in
fact, part of the reason I chose to turn my first book into a trilogy was that
I wanted to know what happened to some of the characters I was introducing.The only way to learn their stories was
to follow along as I told them.

Did you
hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

Yes and in fact with my last book I hired two separate
editors to complete three different editing processes.I’ve learned so much since my first
book, but there are so many levels of review necessary to create a good
finished product.

Did you
hire a graphic artist for your book cover? Were you actively involved in the
creation?

For the Bend-Bite-Shift Trilogy and my MAUCs Series I’ve
been doing my own book covers.I
enjoy doing them and it’s fun for me to experiment with stock photos to get
just the right look.However, I’m
very excited that I was able to hire Stephanie Nelson with Once Upon a Time
Book Covers to make the three covers for my next series, For Love of Fae
Trilogy.She did a beautiful job!

Besides
Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?

Do you
find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and
writing your next book?

Sometimes it’s very difficult, but the marketing side can be
fun.I love doing interviews like
this and also interacting with fans on facebook and twitter.I think it’s important to balance both.

What
advice would you give a new author just entering into the self-publishing
arena?

It’s important to have people to support your work when you’re
trying to successfully self-publish, so I’ve found my most important tool to be
my circle of supporters.These are
folks who are in the business and a few who are not.They prop me up when I’m down and give me a swift kick in
the pants when I need to buck up and most importantly they cheer me on along
the way.

What’s
next for you?

Ooo!I love
this part.I have so many irons in
the fire and I’m so excited about all of them.Right now I’m finishing up a contemporary romance called All for Hope through Hayson
Publishing.Right after that I’m going
to get back to Tangled Up in Trouble,
the second in my MAUCs Series.And
then later this year I’ll start the For Love of Fae Trilogy which will continue
the story began in the Bend-Bite-Shift Trilogy!Lots of exciting stuff going on!

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